Wilson started cutting towards the marina. The swells were still lifting us up and setting us down but now they were doing it much more rhythmically. Pretty soon we could all see the marina. It was looking like a yacht Dixie derby was going on. Multiple boats were drifting around and slamming into the others. One smaller boat was not moving at all when waves hit it and it took a second for me to figure out that was because it was stuck on another boat that was submerged underneath it. Ignoring all the ruckus, Wilson drove us towards the marina without hesitation.
We were all looking for somewhere safe to settle in. If we went too far into the marina we risked getting stuck on a capsized vessel. If we stayed too close to the river we were still having to fight the swells and current. There really wasn’t a great answer. Wilson started working us into the marina. He was aiming for the side closest to the bay which looked to be the emptiest as far as tied off boats went. He sent Walker and Davis out on the bow as he maneuvered closer to the concrete sides of the marina. Everything in the marina was moving up and down.
Davis took a flying leap and landed on the ladder attached to the concrete wall. Walker tossed him a rope and he tied us off so that we were loosely connected to the wall. Davis then disappeared up the ladder into the rain. He showed up a few minutes later riding on the floating dock that was banging around by our boat. Walker threw him a piece of rope and he tied us off to the floating dock as well. Now we were secured to two points and the rope should keep us from slamming into either one of them if the swells decided to change direction or the wind picked back up.
Once secured we watched as the rain and the wind steadily picked up. It didn’t seem like we were going to be accomplishing anything anytime soon so we set a watch and everyone headed down into the cabin.
“It smells like a homeless guy took a dump in this hallway!”
Davis was not happy. He looked over at Reeves who had worked himself over to sit on one of the chairs by the bar. Reeves still had on his lifejacket and there were obvious puke stains on it and chunks of something in his hair. He looked completely miserable sitting there. Davis started loudly banging around in all the cabinets searching for cleaning supplies. Ann brought Reeves a washrag from the bathroom and a bottle of water and told him to get himself cleaned up and get some hydration. Davis attacked the puke with a spare t-shirt and a spray bottle of lemon scented bleach surface cleaner. When he was done we’d gone from the solid puke smell to a citrusy puke smell. I wasn’t sure it was much better.
Cabin cleaned up and decontaminated as much as possible we all settled in to wait out the storm. It was pretty much impossible to sleep with the boat bouncing around like crazy and the overpowering stench of the cleaner fighting the puke smell. We left the door open to try and air out a little bit. We tried opening some windows but the rain was blowing sideways so that wasn’t working out. We started tossing around ideas and brainstorming. If we could find another working boat in the marina after the storm we thought the best plan may be to take two boats. We could leave this one anchored somewhere close by the carrier with the timer going on the bomb while we rode out of the harbor in the other one.
That plan had the advantage of being straightforward. We were betting the harbor would be a mess and with everything in chaos no one would look too closely at us. As long as we did everything quickly and didn’t attract any attention we should be good. If we did attract attention, we hoped it would be as we were trying to leave the harbor. That way the bomb would already be set and we’d just have to fight our way out. The advantage of being in the harbor already is it should make it pretty unexpected for us to be attacking. As long as they didn’t know we had the nuke it shouldn’t be a big deal anyway as they would not be expecting to deal with people trying to plant something like that in with them.
The other piece we needed to figure out was timing. We needed to wait until the carrier was back in port and tied up. We decided we’d send Davis out to keep a lookout. His Asian features should make it possible for him to walk around outside in the storm without being shot. He could find a good hiding spot within reach of our radios and let us know when the carrier came back. We voted on Reeves and Walker to team up to go and search for the second boat. Walker because he knew what he was doing and Reeves because we hoped the driving sheets of freezing rain would sober him up and clean him off.
Once we had radio checks complete and assignments figured out everyone took off to do their job. I felt good about at least having a plan. It made it feel like we had some kind of control over this insane situation.
Entry 29: Into the Eye of the Storm
Once we had sent them out we had nothing to do but sit in the boat and wait. We figured out how to open the windows below decks and let some air in without flooding the whole boat. That helped make it livable down there. Or, at least breathable, we were still getting bounced all over the place. The marina was a lot calmer than the bay had been but we were still getting banged around like a rubber ducky in a bath tub with a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. It had that same excitement of waiting for a big piece of whatever to get brought down on us and crash through the hull.
Wilson was up in the bridge keeping watch and Ann and I were below trying to rest. You never knew when you might get a chance to take a nap so when a chance came up no seasoned soldier turned it down. Reeves had informed us of this bit of survival trivia multiple times and it was one of the bits of advice he’d thrown out there which I’d taken to heart. He’d said a soldier can sleep anywhere, anytime. I assumed most of them may still have a problem in this particular situation. Ann and I gave it our best attempt though and did manage to grab a few winks in between the swells and sheer terror when something would clank hard off the hull.
Wilson came down and woke us up to let us know that Reeves and Walker had found another boat that was able to turn on. They’d also ran into a few Zombies they’d had to take care of. No Koreans wandering around that they could see though. They were going to hang out in the other boat and make sure it was good to go. Wilson finished letting us know what was going on and started to go back up the ladder when Ann coughed to get his attention.
“Could we set the nuke off underwater?” She asked.
Wilson thought about it for a second or two before shaking his head in the affirmative. Him and I were both looking at Ann expectantly now.
“I was just thinking. If we sunk the boat near the carrier on the way out then we’d be almost guaranteed no one would find the bomb before it went off. Might be easier than trying to dock near the carrier. I’m thinking docking and then running and jumping in another boat will look more suspicious than a boat that just sinks close to shore near the carrier. There’s going to be so much damage and garbage from this storm that should be a natural fit.”
Wilson was nodding his head.
“Yeah. That could definitely work. Nice thinking. We soldered the timer into a waterproof box on the top of it so really, I just need to make sure that is waterproofed and take off all the stuff that we put on to make the bomb float. I’m really starting to see that bomb as a major pain in the ass. Be nice to finally blow it up and be done with lugging it all over the place.”
Wilson disappeared back up the stairs to work on the bomb. I started to go help but decided as an amateur I didn’t want to cut my bomb design teeth on a nuke. That decision may have had something to do with being able to snuggle in with Ann on the large, dry bed in the cabin. I enjoyed that until Reeves came barreling down into the cabin about an hour later. Loudly asking if we were sleeping or otherwise engaged. He probably thought that was the height of intellectual comedy.
Once we’d run out of stuff to throw at him we listened as he described going out in the storm and making their way around to where all the boats were grinding up against each other on the other side of the marina. A Zombie had popped out of nowhere and him and Walker had almost fell in the water trying to grab the Zombie and throw it in the water. They’d been so focused on avoiding Kor
eans out here they hadn’t really been thinking about Zombies. The fact they’d seen one told us the Koreans had not cleared this area well or the storm was blowing in more Zombies and opening up new ways for them to get in.
The boat they had found was another one similar to this. A rich man’s toy. They’d verified it had plenty of fuel and they could turn it on. The power systems all seemed to be working and as far as they could tell we should be able to drive it out of the marina. We caught Reeves up on our discussions with Wilson and the new plan to ditch this boat with the nuke in it close to the carrier and ride out on the one Reeves and Walker had found. Reeves agreed it seemed like the plan was getting better every time we had to revise it. We all just fervently hoped we didn’t have to revise it too many more times.
As dawn broke through the angry gray skies, the wind died down. The swells became perceptibly less until they gradually petered down to just slightly higher than normal. We all took turns peeking around at the damage the storm had caused. Standing in the bridge and looking into the marina and the surrounding parking lots and buildings showed the damage done to the boats and buildings as mother nature worked to reclaim this land as her own. One corner of the marina was a big pile of boats and boat parts. Masts peeked up from the depths of the marina where tall, proud boats had been anchored prior.
The boat we needed looked to still be in good shape. Around noon the call came in from Davis that we had been waiting on. The carrier was coming back into port. That was our call to arms. We all started running around making sure everything was ready. Davis got back to the boat about forty minutes later. He double-checked Wilsons work on the bomb and pronounced it good to go. We all started talking tactics on when the best time to try and pull this off would be. Should we go now or wait until night when the carrier was docked and their guard may be down?
Davis told us what he had seen and why he thought we should go now.
“It’s chaos out there right now. Boats and assorted junk are drifting all over the place. The longer we wait the more they’ll have time to get everything under control. I say we move all the weapons over to the new boat and get ready to set off the nuke and get the hell out of here.”
We hashed it out for a few more minutes but going now seemed to be the general consensus. We all started dragging gear onto the dock and humping it over to the other boat. Once that was complete, we found ourselves all standing around the nuke. Walker pulled something out of his pocket and stood there for a minute, then he started talking.
“I never did get married. This job is pretty harsh on long term relationships. My sister Lisa, she did though. She married an asshole. He beat her. When she told me, she’d left him and that he had beat her I didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t told me before because she’d known I’d flip out on him. She’d stayed with him because they had a kid. His name was Brandon but I called him sunshine because he had this bright ass blond hair.”
Walker stopped there to take a deep, trembling breath. We all waited respectfully. This was more than most of us had ever heard him say at one time.
“The bastard came back and beat on her some more in front of Brandon and Lisa called me. I took care of the guy. He never bothered ‘em again. I started trying to spend a lot more time with them between deployments. I took Brandon camping and fishing and all that stuff his loser dad had never been sober enough to do. I loved him and I don’t know how many times I thought to myself if I ever have a son I hope he’s just like this little boy. My little sunshine. When I went on deployments I’d always get some kind of coin for him from where ever I was at. He kept them in a little treasure chest. I was going to give him this one when I got back this time. I couldn’t find him.”
Walker knelt beside the nuke and slapped a coin down on the outside of it. He reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a roll of duct tape. He tore off a piece of the tape and used it to secure the coin. He stayed in a kneeling position for a few more minutes. We all held a respectful silence for him. He stood back up and all six of us stood around the bomb like pall bearers around a casket. Heads bowed, hearts hurt and minds wandering. To my mind, the Koreans had made a deal with the devil to take over the world and now we were here to collect their souls. Walker had tears streaming down his face. He turned and grabbed his bag and jumped over to the floating dock we’d pulled ourselves closer to.
By the time his feet hit the dock I knew he’d be back to business. The rest of us had to shrug off the raw emotion he’d laid down. Walker wasn’t the only one with more than raindrops dripping off their faces. Reeves, Ann and I took turns jumping over onto the floating dock behind Walker. We caught the attention of some passing Zombies who promptly screamed and jumped into the water trying to get to us. I watched as they drowned. Vaguely wondering, like I always did, who they’d been back before the world went crazy.
Entry 30: Burying the Bomb
We sat around and waited as the sun made its circle through the sky. A few Zombies walked by but they didn’t notice us. We huddled in the cabins of our luxury yachts and got ourselves psyched up for the evening. Once the sun set we were going to run with our lights on out into the bay and then wait for Wilson and Davis to scuttle their boat. They’d set the timer and swim over to us. We were going to turn the lights on our boat the same time they turned the lights off on their boat. Hopefully, that’d be enough to confuse anyone who was watching. The whole plan basically depended on no one watching us very well. If they did, we were probably screwed.
When the sun sank we started up the two boats and started working our way out of the marina. A couple of boats had shifted around during the day as they sank and the waves bounced them around so we went out slowly to avoid getting entangled in those messes. We still had a rough moment when a large wave picked us up and set us down on top of one of those wrecks. Walker had cut power as soon as we hit the funnel between the waves and then he went full throttle as soon as the next wave picked us up. We managed to scrape by over the top of the sunken boat.
The air was chilly and a dense mist like rain was falling around us. I wasn’t sure if it was fog or just a very light rain. For our purposes, it was perfect. It should make us even more difficult to track from the shore. We cruised down the canal without incident. Once out in the bay we passed one boat headed towards the canal leading to the marina. As we continued into the bay the traffic was pretty heavy. We assumed it was all the boats still making their way in from the storm. Based on some reckoning known only to Davis and himself, Wilson made the call on when to start sinking the boat they were in.
We were sitting about a hundred yards off shore and could barely make out a couple of streetlights lining the harbor through the mist. The lights told me we must be fairly close to the carrier since it would be the energy source for those lights. The heavy mist was also doing a good job of blocking out sound. We anchored behind Wilson as him and Davis set the timer and started banging holes in the hull of their boat. If there was anybody who knew how to sink a boat it should be these guys. The boat started to gradually get lower in the rough water.
Davis and Wilson flipped off their lights and we flipped on ours. A spotlight shown from behind us onto the stern of the boat where Davis and Wilson were standing in there swimming gear. They did not look Korean in the harsh light. It may have just been my paranoid brain but they looked like two Navy Seals up to no good who were fixing to dive into the harbor. The little trick we’d done with the lights had probably not gone unnoticed either. I turned around to see an open harbor patrol boat sitting about thirty feet off our stern shining their light on Wilson and Davis as they went ahead and jumped into the water.
I doubted we could continue to pull off this charade but was willing to give it a try. I heard the sound of automatic fire and saw the Koreans on the open boat flopping around as they worked to get their boat out of range and return fire. Reeves wasn’t one for continuing the charade. He continued to fire into the smaller harbor patrol craft as Walker watched out for Wil
son and Davis who were swimming with long strokes for our boat. The boat they had just scuttled was barely visible above the water now. Return fire started coming in randomly form the patrol boat. I hit the deck next to Ann and we worked our way over to return fire as well.
You can die just as easy from random fire as from well-aimed fire. Hell, even friendly fire is dangerous as shit. The guys shooting at us from the other small boat were probably just pointing their weapons in our general direction while they tried to call for backup on the radio and get their boat moving the hell away from us. I counted to three and shoved the thought of random fire out of my brain as I stood up and started walking aimed fire into the smaller craft. Reeves, Ann and I continued to fire until there was no more return fire.
Once Wilson and Davis were mostly on board we slowly cruised over to the site of the harbor patrol boat. Reeves and I stood overwatch while Wilson and Davis jumped into the smaller boat and went about scuttling that one as well. They handed up all the available ammo first. We’d gotten lucky and killed the guy who had been stationed on the fifty-caliber machine gun mounted near the front of the vessel, right by the spotlight. I’m sure Reeves would be happy to take credit for that one. We didn’t have a ton of time to mess around so once Wilson and Davis were through they hopped back aboard and Walker got us moving out again.
Zournal (Book 6): The Final Countdown Page 17